SWAZILAND POLITICAL PARTIES: THE FACTS

Traditionalists in Swaziland have been gloating that because ‘only’ 36 percent of people surveyed in the kingdom wanted political parties it proved the present system of autocratic monarchy was the preferred system of government. They have missed the point spectacularly. 

In Swaziland political parties are banned from contesting elections and King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, chooses the government. All debate about alternate political systems is banned in the kingdom. Meetings to discuss political reform are routinely broken up by police and security forces; prayer meetings are closed and advocates for reform are jailed. Political parties and prodemocracy groups are banned under the Suppression of Terrorism Act.

 

The media, which are mostly state-controlled under the King, do not allow debate for political reform and schools teach the present ‘tinkhundla’ system as the ‘Swazi’ way of government. Even children at the annual Reed Dance at which ‘virgins’ dance half-naked before the King are taught to sing songs against political parties.

With all this going on, it is close to a miracle that as many as 36 percent of the population still say they want political parties. It does not take a leap of the imagination to suppose that if the Swazi people were given the space to genuinely discuss alternative political systems, the 36 percent would quickly grow to a majority and King Mswati’s absolute monarchy would come to an end.

Monarchists and traditionalists in Swaziland are dishonest about political parties. They say they bring division and chaos, but that does not stop them accepting charity and aid from nations that are multi-party democracies.

As recently as 2 November 2015, the Swazi media praised King Mswati when he returned from India with promises of business loans from that country. What the Swazi people were not told was that India is known as the largest democracy in the world (because of the size of its population) and has a multi-party system.

Taiwan, which set up numerous businesses in Swaziland to exploit the kingdom’s (now withdrawn) special trading relationship with the United States, is a multi-party system. 

South Africa, Swaziland’s neighbour and largest trading partner, is a multi-party democracy. Without the support of South Africa, Swaziland would not have an economy. 

King Mswati gladly receives charity for his kingdom from the European Union, an economic bloc that consists entirely of multi-party democracies. The United States – another multi-party democracy – also provides aid and charity in abundance. 

It is the economic and aid support from multi-party democracies that keeps Swaziland functioning. But traditionalists refuse to openly discuss why it is that all these multi-party democracies have such successful political systems that they can afford to be charitable to Swaziland, while Swaziland, where parties cannot contest elections, cannot support itself.

Tens of thousands of Swazi people are predicted to go hungry during the present drought that grips southern Africa. Swaziland will only stop its people from starving because food will be donated by multi-party democracies. 

While the Swaziland Government runs around like headless chickens unable to cope with the drought, which recurs year after year, other, multi-party democracies in the area have put in place schemes to cope with the crisis. 

In Botswana (a multi-party democracy) for example, dams and pipelines take water from areas with water to those without. Financial schemes are in place to compensate farmers when crops fail and livestock die.

The government has worked on this for years, not only because it believes it is the right thing to do, but also because it knows that if it fails the people will throw it out at the next election and vote in an alternative government to meet their wishes.

People in Swaziland have no such choice. In the Swazi system the people elect only 55 of the 65 members of the House of Assembly; the King appoints the other 10. No members of the Senate are elected by the people. King Mswati choses the Government: the Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini was not elected to parliament by the people, nor did they choose him to be the government leader.

There is nothing the people in Swaziland can do. It makes no difference who they vote for. Whoever they elect into parliament, the decision-making remains with the King and nothing will change.

Richard Rooney

See also

THE CASE FOR POLITICAL PARTIES

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-case-for-political-parties.html

ONE IN THREE WANT POLITICAL PARTIES

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/10/one-in-three-want-political-parties.html

SWAZIS WANT DEMOCRACY - SURVEY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/swazis-want-democracy-survey.html

EU TELLS KING: ‘FREE PARTIES’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/eu-tells-king-free-parties.html

 

UK CALLS FOR PARTIES TO BE UN-BANNED

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/uk-calls-for-parties-to-be-un-banned.html

 

NO PARTIES AT SWAZILAND ELECTION

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/01/no-parties-at-swaziland-election.html

SWAZI SOLDIERS AMBUSH AND KILL MAN

Soldiers in Swaziland ambushed a truck and riddled it with bullets, killing the occupant, because it would not stop when requested.

The dead man ‘had his skull and chest split open’, according to a local media report.

This was one of a long line of army killings which have prompted accusations that King Mswati III, the absolute monarch in Swaziland, runs a military state.

The latest incident on Friday (6 November 2015) happened on the border between Swaziland and South Africa, near Mankayane.

According to the Times Sunday newspaper in Swaziland soldiers spotted a white South African registered truck ‘being smuggled through a cut fence’ in the borderline at Dwalile area, outside Mankayane.

The newspaper reported, ‘The soldiers are said to have first signalled for the truck to stop but the driver ignored their instructions, prompting them to open fire.

‘The truck did not stop and the army personnel alerted their colleagues from another base to be on the lookout for a white truck that was approaching their direction.

‘Upon receiving the message, the soldiers are said to have waited in ambush for the truck.

‘When they also failed to force the driver to stop, the army personnel sprayed the truck with bullets, some of which are said to have blasted his skull, splitting it open in the process.

‘Other bullets are said to have landed in different areas in the body, including the feet and also leaving another gash wound in the man’s chest.

‘The man died on the spot, possibly from the serious nature of the injuries sustained.’

In October 2015, soldiers put 16 bullets into a man and killed him because he would not stop his car at a road check. The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by the King, reported that the soldiers, ‘found themselves with no option but to open fire when a Toyota Tazz bearing foreign registration numbers was smuggled into the kingdom with the occupants failing to stop when ordered to do so’.

It added, ‘A total of 16 bullet wounds were found on the deceased’s body which the army riddled through at him as he tried to escape.’

The shooting occurred at Gege. There were two occupants in the vehicle believed to have been stolen from around Piet-Retief. The driver was killed on the spot while his colleague who also got shot managed to flee with several bullet wounds, according to the Observer. 

This incident came less than two weeks or so after soldiers also gunned down another suspected car smuggler near Mshololo not far from Zombodze Emuva. 

In July 2015 it was reported by Titus Thwala a member of the Swazi parliament that Swaziland soldiers beat up old ladies so badly they had to be taken to their homes in wheelbarrows. They were among the local residents who were regularly beaten by soldiers at informal crossing points between Swaziland and South Africa.

Soldiers have been out of control in the kingdom for a very long time. In January 2010 they were warned by the Swaziland Human Rights and Public Administration Commission that their attacks on civilians amounted to a ‘shoot to kill’ policy and this was unconstitutional.

In April 2013, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) condemned Swaziland police and state security forces for their ‘increasingly violent and abusive behaviour’ that is leading to the ‘militarization’ of the kingdom.

In a report to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) meeting in The Gambia, OSISA said, ‘There are also reliable reports of a general militarization of the country through the deployment of the Swazi army, police and correctional services to clamp down on any peaceful protest action by labour or civil society organisations ahead of the country’s undemocratic elections.’

See also

SWAZILAND ‘BECOMING MILITARY STATE’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/swaziland-becoming-military-state.html

SWAZILAND, AN ‘OPEN-AIR PRISON’

Swaziland has become an ‘open-air prison, a militarised society and a royal farm’ in which people become mere farmworkers for the King and his family, according to new research published in an international academic journal.

‘The autocratic system parasitically feeds off the labour of the poor, whose primary reason for existence is to work for the royal family and reproduce future workers of the same’, Bongani Masuku and Peter Limb conclude.

Masuku and Limb say that the education system in the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, is in decline and only 6 percent of high school graduates go on to further education.

‘The aim appears to be to deny wider educational opportunities and discourage various forms of critical thinking and action so that more and more people see success tied to the mercy of the King, whose propaganda is pushed on state-owned radio and exploited in cultural spheres,’ they write in the Review of African Political Economy.

They say, ‘Many rural areas lack basic services such as clean water, health facilities, schools and roads whilst the royal family and its politicians enjoy lavish lifestyles.’

Masuku, the International Relations Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions and Limb, of the Michigan State University, United States, analyse the present state of ‘political freedom and democracy’ in Swaziland.

They say the monarchy ‘exercises absolute power’ through the system of governance known as tinkhundla. The royal family controls key economic sectors and has its ‘footstalls’ in the form of chiefs at community levels.

They add that key appointments of power are exclusively the King’s prerogative. ‘He appoints the prime minister, chief justice, principal secretaries and political commissions. State legal immunity, absence of political parties and suppression of the media and civil society undermine the rule of law and accountability.’

ANOTHER SWAZI POLICE SHOOTING

Police in Swaziland shot a man at close range after he overturned rubbish bins and then ran away from them, local media reported.

It is the latest in a long list of police shootings in the absolute monarchy.

The Times of Swaziland, the only independent daily newspaper in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, reported that a 21-year-old man had been suspected of throwing rubbish in the road and pelting vehicles with stones.

The newspaper said, ‘he was shot by police at close range after refusing to board their vehicle’.

It added, ‘This, after he had been fingered to be one of those who pelted vehicles with stones and further threw rubbish in the road. The bullet pierced through the man’s stomach due to the close proximity of the shooting. The incident happened in the early hours of Saturday [7 November 2015] in Ezulwini near Boma Restaurant. 

‘A witness said the shooting happened after Simanga Mnisi and his friend took to their heels when the police ordered them to board their vehicle.’

This was not the first time police have shot civilians.

In October 2015 police fired guns and teargas at workers engaged in a legitimate protest against employment conditions at the Zheng Yong Garment factory in Nhlangano. 

A plain-clothed policeman shot an unarmed man in the back killing him while on a public bus in February 2014. The man had allegedly stolen some copper wire before boarding the bus, travelling from Siteki, in eastern Swaziland to Manzini. 

The Times Sunday newspaper reported at the time the driver of the bus Majahonke Zikalala said, ‘the man was attempting to force his way out of the bus, the police officer shot him in the back, near the spine… the man fell on the floor after which he was handcuffed while he bled’. He died of his injures at the scene.

In March 2013, Swaziland police shot a man dead in front of his 11-year-old child as he held his hands up in an attempt to surrender to them.

Thokozani Mngometulu, aged 31, was killed as he got out of his car at his homestead in Dlakadla, in the Shiselweni region of Swaziland. Thokozani’s family, who also witnessed the killing, say he was shot in the pelvis at close range by a police officer.

In June 2012, a serial rapist suspect Bhekinkhosi Masina, popularly known as Scarface, was shot by police as they cornered him for arrest. Police say they only shot him in the thigh and he unexpectedly died of his injuries. The Times of Swaziland newspaper later revealed he had been shot six times, including in the head and back.

In a separate incident, a mentally ill man, Mduduzi Mngometulu, aged 34, was shot seven times by police and died of his injuries. He had four holes in his stomach, one in the leg and two bullet wounds on the left side of his chest.

These are not isolated incidents in Swaziland where police have a growing record of killing or maiming suspects before arrest. The cases have largely gone unreported outside of the kingdom itself.

In one example, police executed a suspect, Thabani Mafutha Dlamini, at Nkwalini in Hlatikulu in the presence of his colleagues and home boys in what local media called ‘cowboy style’. The Swazi Observer newspaper reported the incident in December 2011 saying, ‘Police had previously warned the mother of the dead man to “budget for funeral expenses” as they intended to remove him. He was said to be on a police “wanted list”’. Dlamini was unarmed.

In a separate case in February 2011, a Swazi policeman shot Mbongeni Masuku, described in media as a Form IV pupil, in the head in what was later described as ‘an execution-style killing’.

The killing happened outside a bar in Matsapha, an industrial town in Swaziland.

Masuku’s uncle Sigayoyo Maphanga said Mbongeni had been dragged out of his car by police. He told the Swazi Observer, a policeman whom he named, ‘shot my nephew at the back of the left ear and he fell on the ground with blood oozing from his mouth and ears. We were all shocked and angered by such brutality from police officers.’ 

In a separate case in May 2011, Mathende Matfonsi was shot dead by police while he was attending a field of dagga, inside the remote forests of Lomahasha near the border with Mozambique.

His family accused the police of ‘cold-blooded murder’. Matfonsi was shot dead at Ebhandeni, the same area where Nkosinathi Khathwane had previously been shot dead by soldiers at night.

The police told residents that Matfonsi fired at them and they shot back. The family said he was unarmed.

In March 2010, police shot a man as he was trying to surrender to them. This time the victim, Mncedisi Mamba, did not die. His mother, Thoko Gamedze, said Mamba had his hands up and was surrendering to police, but they shot him anyway.

It is not only crime suspects who get shot at. In June 2013, police fired live bullets and teargas as children protested against alleged corruption at Mhubhe High School in Ngculwini Police were called after school pupils boycotted classes.

Local media reported police were armed with rifles and pistols. Gunshots were fired at the pupils after police drove them away from the school, but they tried to return.

Legitimate protestors are also targets. In February 2012, a woman at a protest march in Siteki, called by vendors and transport operators over plans by the town hall to move the local bus rank, was shot in the hand as she walked away from police. Reports said she was only 2 metres away from police when they fired.

Police in Swaziland also shoot innocent bystanders. In May 2012, a student was shot in the leg by police as they tried to break up a protest at the Limkokwing private university in Mbabane. The 23-year-old was not part of the protest and was caught in crossfire, according to human rights activists in the kingdom.

See also

TEXTILE PROTEST: POLICE FIRE GUNS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/10/textile-protest-police-fire-guns.html

SWAZI POLICE SHOOT-TO-KILL

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/07/swazi-police-shoot-to-kill.html
 

POLICE SHOOT TWO STUDENTS IN HEAD

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/08/police-shoot-two-students-in-head.html
 

POLICE SHOOT INNOCENT BYSTANDER

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/07/police-shoot-innocent-bystander.html

SWAZI GUN COPS ENDANGER CHILDREN

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/swazi-gun-cops-endanger-children.html

POLICE SHOOT AND KILL MENTALLY ILL MAN

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/07/police-shoot-and-kill-mentally-ill-man.html
 

POLICE ‘SHOT ACCUSED RAPIST IN HEAD’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/police-shot-accused-rapist-in-head.html

POLICE KILL SUSPECT ‘IN COLD BLOOD’

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/06/police-shoot-suspect-in-cold-blood.html

SWAZI ACTIVIST FILM UP FOR AWARD

Swaziland documentary nominated for international award

Kenworthy News Media, 6 November 2015

SOURCE

“Swaziland – Africa’s last monarchy”, a documentary film about activist Bheki Dlamini by award-winning Danish investigative journalist Tom Heinemann, has been nominated in the short film category at the Al-Jazeera International Film Festival, writes Kenworthy News Media.

The main character in the documentary, young activist Bheki Dlamini, says that he is pleased with the nomination as well as with the publicity that the film has given the struggle for democracy and social justice in his homeland of Swaziland.

“The documentary on Swaziland has helped to give a voice to the suffering people of Swaziland who are in a bitter struggle for freedom and democracy. My story, as captured in the documentary, is the story of most activists in Swaziland who are subjected to torture, beatings, arrests and forced exile. The nomination of the documentary is a victory for the people of Swaziland as Mswati’s regime can no longer afford to fool the world that there is no problem in Swaziland”, says Bheki Dlamini.

In August, the film won the main prize and the prize for best short documentary at the A Film for Peace-festival in Italy as part of Tom Heinemann and Erling Borgen’s series, “A Heart That Never Dies”. The series has been aired on Danish-, Swedish- and Norwegian national television.

Tom Heinemann has won the Danish Outstanding Investigative Journalist of the year award twice, and has been runner up for Journalist of the year in Denmark three times. In 2007 he won the Prix Italia in the current affairs selection.

STUDENTS MUST LEAD THE STRUGGLE

Students must lead the struggle in Swaziland

Kenworthy News Media, 4 November 2015 

SOURCE

In the small absolute monarchy of Swaziland the struggle to get a decent education is connected to the struggle for political freedom. Student activist Njabulo Mazibuko has written about what implications this understanding has for himself and his fellow students, writes Kenworthy News Media.

“We are not masters of our political fate, but slaves of circumstance. The paths of rationality are blocked, and as students we all have to take responsibility for addressing the political issues that are overlooked day after day”, Njabulo Mazibuko writes in his essay, which is called The Need for More Student Activism.

 

“The government is killing individuality and freedom of the mind compelling my people more and more to conform to a similar pattern”, he says. “Democracy stands as the only hope for my people today”.

More student activism
Mazibuko is the outgoing President of the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS). He is also a member of the Group of 15 that are presently trying to initiate a process of dialogue with Swaziland’s absolute monarch King Mswati III and his government.

He finished his degree in BSc. Agriculture in early October and has been unemployed since, along with over half the population. A situation that he feels will not be likely to change under the present regime. Not least because he is an active member of banned political party PUDEMO, and the Public Service Bill of 2015 clearly states that civil servants cannot be affiliated with political parties.

He has written the political essay about what he sees as the need for more student activism and an understanding of the importance of engaging politically, in a country where political parties are illegal.

Fighting submission and servitude
In Swaziland, education is tied to submission towards the king and his chief.

“In order for a child to get education at tertiary level, he or she has to be submissive to the traditional leaders; otherwise that child may not get his or her scholarship form signed”, says Njabulo Mazibuko.

“The ruling regime in Swaziland has utterly failed to make politics attractive to the youth, but as students we all have to take responsibility for addressing political issue. For the price we pay for not understanding politics is servitude to others or to circumstances”.

And circumstances for the vast majority of Swazis are very grim indeed, says Mazibuko.

“The dictator has been constantly employing the same tactics from time to time in the country which are arrests, detentions and torture, threats and sanctions. The regime will use police, prisons and army to maintain silence which they call order or peace and in all respects it constitutes a dictatorship. This is the basis for the struggle facing the student activist in Swaziland today”.

Inspiration begins at home
Students and student organisations such as SNUS have often been catalysts for change. An obvious example is that of the South African Students’ Organisation, important as both an ideological and practical precursor for Steve Biko’s highly influential Black Consciousness movement.

Mazibuko’s inspirations are closer to home, however.

“The Secretary General of the Swaziland Youth Congress [and former President of SNUS] comrade Maxwell Dlamini is my first source of inspiration. I first visited him at Sdwashini Prison where he was incarcerated for sedition in 2012. His incredible commitment and will to sacrifice for the struggle was and is an inspiration indeed”.

Students must lead the struggle
But even though Swaziland has many young activists, such as Maxwell Dlamini, who have been ready to risk tear gas, rubber bullets, torture and even death to forward the struggle for democracy in Swaziland, Njabulo Mazibuko believes that the youth of Swaziland in general have some way to go, before they can be a catalyst of change.

“The most depoliticized group is the youth, hence the need to sharpen that through student activism. The youth hide under the influence of liquor and the use of gadgets for social or cyber politics. The situation is very discouraging because they are supposed to be the architects of the future of the country”, he says.

The dismal alternative to action and activism is the present system of inequality, poverty and a political system and society which instils fear with repression and at the same time “punishes originality or humanity and starves imagination from the moment of first going to school to the time of burial”, says Mazibuko.

The Swazi students must therefore resist and actively fight what he calls the brainwashing of the regime.

“Let every student activist lead the struggle”, as Njabulo Mazibuko concludes his essay.

‘SWAZI KING WANTS 10pc OF COCA-COLA’

Coca-Cola, the global firm that accounts for about 40 percent of Swaziland’s economy, has threatened to leave the kingdom because King Mswati III has demanded it give him a 10 percent stake in its Swazi subsidiary for nothing, a prodemocracy group reported on Wednesday (4 November 2015).
 

The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) said in a statement, ‘Reliable sources within the kingdom have informed our network that the company flatly refused to yield to Mswati’s demand and would rather leave.’

It added, ‘If he does not back down from this demand Coca-Cola will be forced to relocate its operations to another country, a move that will be catastrophic for economy of the tiny impoverished kingdom and will lead to the loss of many jobs.’

It added this would worsen ‘an already desperate situation for Swazi workers’ as many of them became unemployed when the kingdom lost beneficial trading rights with the United States under the Africa Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA). This was because King Mswati, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, refused to allow democratic reforms in Swaziland.

Swaziland supplies the Coca-Cola concentrate (the sugary syrup the drink is made from) to most of Africa, big parts of Asia and all of Australia and New Zealand from its industrial plant in Matsapha.

Swaziland has been mortgaged to Coca-Cola (trading as Conco Swaziland) ever since it allowed the company to use it in its fight against workers’ interests in other countries. In 2009, Coca-Cola closed its concentrate supply plant in Nigeria, citing an ‘unfriendly manufacturing environment’ in that country. It had made ‘little profits because of the high manufacturing costs’. 

Coca-Cola also has an impact on the international standing of Swaziland’s economy. The money generated by Coca-Cola is what largely accounts for the kingdom being classified as a ‘lower-middle income developing country’ (and therefore not eligible for certain types of international aid), even though seven in ten of Swaziland’s one-million population live in abject poverty, earning less than US$2 a day.

Peter Kenworthy, of Africa Contact, writing in 2011, said, ‘The real point, though, is that Coca-Cola is probably in Swaziland because it is a dictatorship that oppresses its unions and population. This allows wages to be kept low and unemployment high.’

Kenworthy visited one of the sugar cane fields in Eastern Swaziland, which produces sugar for Coca-Cola.

He wrote, ‘The area that I visited, Vuvulane, is managed by the Vuvulane Irrigated Farms (VIF) but the sugar cane fields are under the auspices of the Swaziland Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise and the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation who lease them to individual farmers, who in turn employ casual labourers.

‘In a small village in Vuvulane, most of the adults worked in the sugar fields as casual labourers for between 400 and 550 Rand (US$40-55) per month. “This is not enough to pay for medicine, proper food or school fees for our children,” one villager told me. “Sometimes we do not eat for days. We used to have our own vegetable gardens but these were confiscated by the sugar company. We sometimes fish in the nearby dam in the evening, when it is dark. If we are caught we will be arrested as the dam is owned by the sugar cane company,” another villager said.

‘Practically none of the children in the village, who were clad in dirty and ripped clothes and looked underfed, attended school and many of the villagers, receive food aid. In addition to this, the water supply is controlled by a privately owned company that readily closes the water supply form the village if they are not paid on time.’

In 2012, the prodemocracy group the Swaziland Democracy Campaign called on Coca-Cola to leave Swaziland immediately.

 

See also

SWAZILAND, SPONSORED BY COCA-COLA

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/01/swaziland-sponsored-by-coca-cola.html

 

COCA-COLA SUPPORTS SWAZI DICTATOR

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/01/coca-cola-supports-swazi-dictator.html

COCA-COLA COLONISES SWAZILAND

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/06/coca-cola-colonises-swaziland.html

KINGDOM BOTTOM IN HEALTH RANKING

Swaziland has come last in a study of the healthiest nations in the world.

The kingdom came bottom out of 145 countries in the World’s Healthiest Countries report published by Bloomberg. Data for the report was compiled from the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation.

The Bloomberg rankings gave each country with a population of 1 million or more a health score and a health-risk score.

Each country’s place was calculated by subtracting their risk score from their health score.

The health score is based on factors such as life expectancy from birth and causes of death, while health-risk is based on factors which could impede health such as the proportion of young people who smoke, the number of people with raised cholesterol and the number of immunisations

KING’S PAPER ACCUSES MEDIA OF LIES

The Observer Sunday, a newspaper in effect owned by Swaziland’s King Mswati III, has accused media in India of lying about the extravagancies of the King’s visit to that country.
 

The newspaper which is part of the Swazi Observer group,  labelled as a  ‘pure propaganda machine for the royal family’ by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in a report on press freedom in Swaziland, objected to reports in a number of media outlets during the King’s October 2015 visit to the Indo-Africa summit in Delhi.

The Observer objected to reports that the King, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, took 100 servants, 30 of his family and 15 wives on the trip. He reportedly booked about 200 rooms at a five-star hotel for his entourage.

The reports originally appeared in Zee Media and News World India. Reports said a single hotel room cost up to US$230 a night.

The Observer also criticised Swazi Media Commentary, the internationally-renowned website that has been reporting on human rights issues in Swaziland since 2007, for drawing global attention to the news reports.

 

The Observer called the reports ‘blatant lies’ but offered its readers no evidence to support its case. Nor did it inform its readers of the cost of the King’s trip.

There has been an international spotlight on King Mswati’s extravagant spending for many years, but media in Swaziland remain silent on the matter. In 2011, Alec Lushaba, editor of the Weekend Observer, wrote that the newspaper group would never publish anything about the monarchy without the King’s approval.

In 2007, Forbes, the internationally-respected media group, revealed that the King had a personal fortune estimated to be US$200 million. 

The King has at least 13 palaces, a private jet, a fleet of top-of-the-range Mercedes Benz and BMW cars and at least one Rolls Royce car.

Swaziland faces a severe financial crisis and the government, which is not elected by the people but handpicked by King Mswati, has announced that elderly grants (old age pensions) are to be abolished for some people. This is to save the government money.

Meanwhile, as recently as Friday (30 October 2015) the Mail and Guardian (M&G) newspaper in South Africa reported that despite the financial meltdown in the kingdom, King Mswati’s government has approved a plan to lease a private A-340 jet for the King. The M&G reported, ‘Industry sources estimated the annual cost of leasing an A-340 – over and above running costs and fixed costs such as insurance – at about $9-million (E122-million).’

M&G also reported, ‘King Mswati’s wealth is a closely guarded secret, but it has been variously estimated at between US$50-million and US$200-million.

‘In addition to his enormous government salary, Mswati controls the royal investment house, Tibiyo Taka Ngwane, which draws mining royalties and has stakes in the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation and hotel chain Swazi Spa Holdings. He has direct stakes in other firms, including 10 percent of MTN Swaziland.’

It added, ‘Swaziland’s Gini coefficient is 51.5, meaning that of 187 countries ranked by the United Nations Development Programme in terms of wealth inequality, it stands at 170.’

In 2012, Forbes named King Mswati as one of the top five worst rulers in Africa. 

It reported the King ruled over a kingdom which has one of the world’s highest HIV prevalence rates: over 35 percent of adults. Its average life expectancy was the lowest in the world at 33 years; nearly 70 percent of the country’s people live on less than US$1 a day and 40 percent are unemployed. 

It added, ‘But for all the suffering of the Swazi people, King Mswati has barely shown concern or interest. 

‘He lives lavishly, using his kingdom’s treasury to fund his expensive tastes in German automobiles, first-class leisure trips around the world and women. But his gross mismanagement of his country’s finances is now having dire economic consequences. Swaziland is going through a severe fiscal crisis. 

‘The kingdom’s economy is collapsing and pensions have been stopped. In June last year [2011], the King begged for a financial bailout from South Africa.’

In February 2011 the M&G newspaper in South Africa reported King Mswati also had US$10-billion that was put in trust in King Mswati’s name for the people of Swaziland by his father, King Sobhuza II.

In 2015, United States government report concluded there was no oversight in the kingdom on how the King, his 15 wives and vast Royal Family spent public money.

See also

KING ‘TOOK 100 SERVANTS’ ON INDIA TRIP

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/10/king-booked-200-rooms-on-india-trip.html

KING DIVERTS WEALTH FROM HIS SUBJECTS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/04/king-diverts-wealth-from-his-subjects.html

 

KINGDOM’S WEALTH STAYS WITH THE KING

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/08/kingdoms-wealth-stays-with-king.html

 

KING MSWATI SPENDS AND SPENDS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/king-mswati-spends-and-spends.html